NIH Public Access Policy: 2024 Policy Details

On December 17, 2024, NIH released its updated 2024 Public Access Policy. This revised policy is in keeping with the White House OSTP memo “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research”. The Policy was informed by public feedback, including comments received in Summer 2024 in response to the NIH Draft Public Access Policy.

The 2024 Public Access Policy is effective for manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025. (Note, the original implementation date of December 31, 2025, was accelerated by the new NIH Director.) Until then, NIH’s current (2008) Public Access Policy remains in effect. See NIH's Public Access website with all related policy documents and announcements.

The following definitions were introduced in NIH's 2024 Public Access Policy and supplemental guidance documents (unless otherwise noted):

• Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) - the author’s final version that has been accepted for journal publication and includes all revisions resulting from the peer review process, including all associated tables, graphics, and supplemental material.
• Embargo - An embargo in publishing is a restriction on access to full-text content until a certain amount of time has passed (this definition is provided by the Library).
• Final Published Article - The journal's authoritative copy, including journal or publisher copyediting and stylistic edits, and formatting changes, even prior to the compilation of a volume or issue or the assignment of associated metadata.
• Official Date of Publication (ODP) - the date on which the Final Published Article is first made available in final, edited form, whether in print or electronic (i.e., online) format.
• Submitted Manuscript - The author’s pre-accepted version of the manuscript that is submitted to a journal or publisher.

For manuscripts that are accepted for publication in a journal on or after July 1, 2025:

1. The full text of manuscripts that result from NIH funding in whole or in part must be made available immediately upon the Official Date of Publication in PubMed Central. An embargo period of any length will no longer be allowed.
2. Authors must include an acknowledgment of federal funding in the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) and Final Published Article (see suggested language below).
3. Authors submitting manuscripts to PubMed Central (via NIHMS) will be required to agree to a standard license that mirrors that of the Government Use License, explicitly granting NIH the right to make the AAM publicly available through PubMed Central without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication (see language below).
4. While publication costs for open access publishing of the final published article will still be allowed (within regulations), publisher fees for depositing the AAM to PubMed Central are not allowable. Authors will continue to be able to deposit the AAM without having to pay. See Publication Costs below.

The 2024 Public Access Policy applies only to manuscripts accepted for publication in scholarly journals (see applicability details). There are no changes to NIH's 2023 Data Management and Sharing Policy as a result of the 2024 Public Access Policy.

NIH also released its draft Plan to Increase Findability and Transparency of Research Results through the Use of Metadata and Persistent Identifiers in December 2024. The final version of this policy will be issued by December 31, 2026, with an effective date no later than one year later.

The move to require all senior and key personnel named in a grant to begin using the Common Forms through SciENcv for their Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support forms was postponed from the original May 25, 2025 effective date. The new effective date and additional implementation details are forthcoming.

The following information is summarized from the NIH Notice, Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy: Government Use License and Rights.

Rights granted to the NIH by awardees

Upon accepting NIH funding, recipients grant to NIH the right to make Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAM) resulting from the funding publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication. This is affirmed via a statement in Notices of Award, in the terms of Other Transaction agreements, and in applicable contracts. 

Authors submitting an AAM to PubMed Central via NIHMS must agree to a submission statement as part of the standard PubMed Central manuscript submission process. Under the NIH Public Access Policy, authors submitting an AAM to PubMed Central must provide NIH with a standard license that mirrors the Government Use License.

This language, included as part of the submission statement to PubMed Central (PMC), states:

I hereby grant to NIH, a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use this work for Federal purposes and to authorize others to do so. This grant of rights includes the right to make the final, peer-reviewed manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication. 

The language in this statement may evolve, but it includes a grant of rights to NIH to make the AAM publicly available in PubMed Central without an embargo, upon the Official Date of Publication.

Guidance for communicating rights in author manuscripts

NIH highly encourages authors to be transparent during the journal submission process by indicating to the journal or publisher that the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM), should the Submitted Manuscript¹ be accepted, is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. This means that NIH, as the funding agency, has the right to make the AAM publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication. NIH does not require that authors demonstrate to NIH what was communicated to publishers.

NIH suggests that authors include the points above as a statement in the Submitted Manuscript. Such a statement may accompany the required funding acknowledgment. 

Sample language from NIH to be included in the Submitted Manuscript and the accepted AAM:

This manuscript is the result of funding in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. Through acceptance of this federal funding, NIH has been given a right to make this manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication, as defined by NIH.

[1] The author’s pre-accepted version of the manuscript that is submitted to a journal or publisher.

See the NIH Notice, Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy: Publication Costs, for complete details.

Unallowable publication costs

1. Costs for services (e.g., peer review) for which there is no resulting, publicly available product are unallowable because costs must be chargeable or assignable in accordance with the relative benefits received (GPS 7.2).
2. Costs for which the institution already pays a fee that would cover all publication costs (e.g., an agreement the institution has with a publisher whereby all authors from that institution may publish for free in exchange for subscription services) are unallowable because costs may not be double charged or inconsistently charged as both direct and indirect costs (GPS 7.4).
   • UCSF and the University of California have several agreements with publishers that help corresponding authors pay open access journal article charges (known as an APC).
     • Many of these agreements ask authors who have budgeted for publication costs in their research funds to pay a portion of the APC, whereas those without sufficient funds may request full coverage by UC. Some of the agreements automatically cover 100% of the APC for UC corresponding authors. Check details for each journal and publisher agreement.
   • Note that institutions have discretion in apportioning publication costs among agreements and NIH funds, as long as when NIH funds are used, such costs are otherwise allowable and consistently charged, regardless of the source of funds, per institutional policy.
3. Costs for publishing services that are charged differentially because an Author Accepted Manuscript is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy or the work is the result of NIH funding are unallowable because charges must be levied impartially on all items published by the journal, whether or not under a federal award (GPS 7.9.1).
4. Costs for services incurred after closeout of the award, even for an Author Accepted Manuscript subject to the NIH Public Access Policy, are unallowable because the costs of publications must be incurred before closeout (GPS 7.9.1).
   • Note that this means that costs for publication may be charged after the period of performance and prior to closeout (i.e., during the 120-day liquidation period). However, these costs must only be for the originally approved activities and must not be associated with any new work performed outside of the period of performance.

Assessing reasonable costs for publication

NIH encourages researchers and institutions to consider, when determining whether costs are reasonable:

• Amount of publication cost in relation to NIH award
• Other works researchers may wish to produce during an award period
• Professional and institutional priorities
• Sustainability in terms of the library budget, laboratory budget, and other relevant budgets, if such costs were to be consistently paid
• Relevance of the journal in communicating findings to advance science and/or improve health outcomes
• Suitability of the journal’s target readership for the dissemination of the content

Additional points about publication costs and research integrity

• Allowable costs may be requested for publicly disseminating works reporting on the results of NIH funding that are not subject to the NIH Public Access Policy, such as dissemination outside of peer-reviewed journals.
• NIH encourages authors to publish papers resulting from NIH-funded research in reputable journals. Fees paid to journals that have characteristics described in the Statement may be considered unreasonable. (See the Library's guide to avoiding predatory publishers.)
• Responsible authorship and publication is a tenet of scientific integrity and is included in required Responsible Conduct of Research instruction.